Enes Quien
SABINE KACUNKO. BRUSENA FOTOESTETIKA / SABINE KACUNKO. POLISHED PHOTO-AESTHETICS
in: Art Magazine Kontura #54 , Zagreb 1997
SABINE KACUNKO. BRUSENA FOTOESTETIKA
Njemacka umjetnica Sabine Kacunko, rodjena u Kasselu 1963 godine, usla je u pojam hrvatske „dizeldorfske skole“ udajom za hrvatskog povjesnicara umjetnosti Slavka Kacunka. Kao „pohrvacena“ umjetnica prvi se puta sa svojim radovima predstavila na izlozbi hrvatskih umjetnika u dijaspori pod nazivom „Hrvatski obzori“, koju sam recenzirao u proslom broju „Konture“. Sabine Kacunko je studirala povijest umjetnosti u Göttingenu, primjenjenu umjetnost u Krefeldu, a zavrsila je umjetnicki studij na glasovitoj Umjetnickoj akademiji u Düsseldorfu, u klasi Nan Hoover, znamenite umjetnice i pedagoga, takodjer velike prijateljice nase zemlje.
Sabine Kacunko svoju je umjetnicku znatizelju usredotocila u medij fotografije, no na sasvim osebujan nacin. Polazeci od trivijalnih motiva botanickog i zooloskog podrijetla – povrca i poneke ribe – Sabine u njima nalazi bogatstvo razvijenih skulpturalnih volumena, te bogatstvo razlicitih tekstura povrsine; drugim rijecima, bogatstvo formi i oblika, u koje fotografskim medijem dubinski i analiticki prodire, istrazujuci maksimum percepcijske prodornosti.
Proporcije povrtnice poput celera, persuna, biljke mesozderke, cvijeta irisa ili pak suncokreta, relativizira gigantizacijom samoga motiva. Prirodno i stvarnosno stanje biljke gubi svoj mimeticki znacaj, postajuci gotovo apstraktnom cjelinom novostvorenog umjetnickog artefakta. Formati Sabininih fotografija dosezu dimenzije od 3.50 metra. Neki su formati kvadratni, istih duzina stranica velicine od 1.80 do 2.50 m. Neke motive predstavlja u vertikalne odnose, u kojima je visina 3.50 m, a sirina 1.75 m, tek nesto vece sirine od polovice visine. Rijedje, ali izuzetno bitno za njezinu estetizaciju kadra, Sabine stvara okrugle kompozicije, sto ovisi o nacinu vidjenja strukture motiva i njegovog organskog kompozicijskog rasporeda. Tako uokvirivanje i kadriranje diskretno „prati“ smjernice elemenata pojedinog motiva, u koji umjetnica ne intervenira, nego ga preuzima upravo takvoga kakav jest.
Pozadinu kompozicije sasvim neutralizira, ona je uvijek crna, cime zadobija izvanredne efekte zrakopraznoga prostora, u kojem motiv – taj jedini protagonist „zbivanja u nezbivanju“ – lebdi. Majstorskim osvjetljavanjem umjetnica istice voluminoznost i taktilne kvalitete sa svim mikrostrukturalnim detaljima gradje motiva, finim nijansiranjem postizuci jednostavnu preciznost izbrusene fotografske estetike, iz koje izranja izbalansirani paradoks: naoko impersonalan, hladan rezultat dijela, u sebi nosi svu suptilnost, pa i sofisticiranost osjecaja s njeznoscu, proisteklom iz umjetnickog subjekta, ugradjenog u gledanje i vidjenje.
I upravo zbog toga gigantizira kadar: zeli sugerirati potrebu za sto konkretnijom, snaznijom, upecatljivijom koncentracijom u neizmjernu bujnost odredjenih prirodnih elemenata po sebi i za sebe, kako bi to Kant rekao. A svijet prirodnih oblika smo zaista u mnogo slucajeva i zaboravili pormatrati, u svijetu razvijenih fragmenata telekomunikacijskih medija, koji razara kontemplativni i meditativni stimulans. Sabine svojim sjajnim, ugodjajnim i stilski razradjenim foto radovima zadaje kontemplativni i meditativni karakter, pojacan akromatikom. Svi su odnosi ostali u crnim, sivim i bijelim inacicama, ne bi li istakli nestajucu konkretiziranu tvarnost i stvarnost forme.
Izigranoj proporcionalnosti, stecenoj znatnim uvecanjem cjeline fotografirane (s)tvari, Sabine suceljuje teznju za izrazitim simetrijama koje pronalazi unutar rasporeda fokusiranoga motiva. Ima u ovim britkim i stilski cistim foto radovima bitnoga upliva simbolickih konotacija, ali na razini asocijativnoga shvacanja. Svaka pojedinacna biljka moze u sifriranoj varijanti biti oko, surla, rasprsnuce, lubanja bika ili krokodila. Atavizam smrti izbija neodoljivom snagom – u svakom se zaokruzenom volumenu otvara rupa. Ona ce sakriti sadrzaj, a istaknuti zloslutnost nedokucivog. Sabine Kacunko tezi perfekcionimu. Svaki joj je rad usavrsen u formalnom, idejnom, sadrzajnom, percepcijskom i estetskom smislu.
Privlacnost njezinih fotografija nije u impozantnim dimenzijama kadrirane kompozicije, koja na pijedestal umjetnickoga djela uzdize i takve banalnosti kao sto su ribe, povrce i cvijece s kakve obicne trznice, vec u izvanrednoj metamorfozi tih stvari/motiva u lebdece skulpture, prenesene na dvodimenzionalnu podlogu. I rub kadra je vazda uokviren crnim okvirom tako d crni okvir postaje nerazdvojnim segmentom citave cjeline kompozicije, a poput raspjevanog finala kadence efektno poentira rad. Preko okvira se ulazi u srz djela i obratno – iz koncentracije u srz djela, pogled se siri prena crnome okviru.
Zapravo, Sabine Kacunko je izuzetno istancana postmodernisticka umjetnica koja ne rabi jedan medij radi njega samog, nego joj medij sluzi za filtriranje zacudnih momenata koje mikrostrukture kozmosa nose u sebi. Zato ona i nije fotografkinja, nego umjetnica kojoj je fotografija sluskinja u sluzbi umjetnosti.
SABINE KACUNKO. POLISHED PHOTO-AESTHETICS
German artist Sabine Kacunko, born in Kassel in 1963, became a part of the Croatian „Düsseldorf school“ by marrying the Croatian art historian, Slavko Kacunko. As a „Croatinized“ artist, she exhibited her works for the first time at the exhibition of Croatian artists in diaspora, entitled „Croatian horizons“, which I reviewed in the last issue of „Kontura“. Sabine Kacunko studied history of art in Göttingen, applied artst in Krefeld and art at the famed Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, class of Nan Hoover, theeminent artist and educator, also a great friend of our country.
Sabine Kacunko focused her artistic curiosity on the medium of photography, but in an entirely singular way. Sallying forth from the trivial motifs of botanical and zoological provenance – vegetables and some fishes – Sabine finds in them an opulence of evolved sculptured bulks and a richness of various surface textures; in other words, a profusion of forms and shapes, which she explores deeply and analytically by means of photography, probing into the maximum of perceptive insight. She relativises the proportions of garden vegetables such as celery, parsley, flesh – eating plant, the flower of iris or a sunflower, by their augmentation to gigantic dimensions. The natural and authentic state of plant loses ist mimetic significance, becoming an almost abstract whole of the newly – created artistic artefact.
The formats of Sabine´s photographs reach the dimensions of up to three an a half meters. Some of them are square, their sides varying in length from 1.8 m to 2.5 m; some motifs are vertically structured, 3.5 m by 1.75 m, the width only a tad over half of the height. Less often, but imperative for her frame aesthetics – which depends on the way in which she perceines a motif´s structure and the organic composition of the layout – Sabine creates round compositions. Thus the framing discreetly „tails“ the directions of the elements of a particular motif, into which the artist does not intrude, but takes it over as it is. She completely neutralises the background of the composition by ist being invariably black, by which a remarkable effect of a vacuum is achiebed, in which the motif – the sole protagonist of „the occurence within non-occurence“ – floats. By her exquisite lighting, she underlines the voluminosity and tactile qualities with all the microstructural details of a motif´s make-up. With delicate shading she achieves a simple precision of a polished phoo-aesthetics, from which a balanced paradox emerges: seemingly impersonal, cool outcome of her work contains all the subtlety, even the sophistication of the feeling, plus the tenderness – ensuing from the artist´s subject – ingrained in her sight and vision.This is why she gigantises the frame: she wants to suggest the need for a more concrete, forceful, striking concentration for the sake of a vast abundance of certain natural elements in themselves and for themselves (as Kant would have it).
And indeed, in the world of developed fragments of telecommunications, which has destroyed the contemplative and meditative stimulants, we have forgotten to observe the world of natural shapes; Sabine breathes into her shiny, atmosperic and stylish photo-works contemplation and meditation, intensified by acromatics. All the relations have remained in black, grey and white variations, in order to accentuate the vanishing concretised corporeality and materialness of the form. To the forsaken proportionality, attained by a significant blow – up of the whole of the photographed object, Sabine juxtaposes the craving for marked symmetries which she finds within the line – up of the focused motif. In these sharp and stylistically pure photo-works there is something of rudimentary power of symbolic connotation, but on the level of associative insight. Each plant may, in this coded variant, be an eye, an elephant´s trunk, a burst, a bull´s or a crocodile´s skull.
The atavism of death gushes forth with an overpowering force – in each rounded volume a hole yawns. It hides the contents, and underlines the portents of the unfathomable. Sabine Kacunko aspires to perfection. Each work of hers is polished in formal, ideational, substantial, perceptive and aesthetic sense.
The appeal of her photos does not lie in the imposing dimensions of her compositions, which elevate to the pedestal of art banalities such as fish, vegetables and flowers which can be bought at a market, but in the extraordinary metamorphosis of these objects/motifs into floating sculptures, transferred onto the two-dimensional foil.
Even the edge of the frame is always bordered in black so thet this black trimming becomes an inseparable componentof the entire composition and – like a flowery final cadence – it puts a very effective finishing touch to the works. By means of the „margin“ one dives into the essence of the work and vice versa – from the concentration on the essence of th ework, our view spreads towards the black margin.
In fact, Sabine kacunko is an exceptionally refineg post-modernist artist who does not use a medium for ist own sake but as a filter for those wondrous moments that the microsturctures of the universe contain. That is why she is not a photographer but an artist for whom photography is in the service of art.